There are only 23 days between Friday and the NFL’s first full 2024 regular-season Sunday slate of games.
That lineup of pro football action includes the Dallas Cowboys playing on the road against 2023 NFL Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett and a Cleveland Browns defense that surrendered the fewest total yards per game (270.2) since the 2014 “Legion of Boom” Seattle Seahawks defense allowed 267.1 10 years ago.
Naturally, Dallas would like to face that ferocious unit with its top offensive playmaker in wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, a 2023 All-Pro who led the NFL in catches (135), ranked second in the league in receiving yards (1,749) and third in receiving touchdowns (12). His 135 catches and 1,749 receiving yards broke both of Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Irvin’s single-season Cowboys records in those metrics. However, the 25-year-old wide receiver hasn’t attended a single second of the Cowboys’ offseason program, including training camp, as he has been holding out for a new contract prior to the 2024 season, the final year of his rookie contract.
Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said he didn’t have a “sense of urgency” to rush to get Lamb’s deal done with only a few weeks until the start of the regular season about a week ago, but it appears he may have changed his stance on that. Dallas’ front office and Lamb’s representation spoke on the phone on Thursday prior to the team’s departure to Las Vegas for their second preseason game in an effort to get a deal, according to The Dallas Morning News. Per the Dallas Morning News’ reporting, the Cowboys offered Lamb “slightly under $33 million per season.”
That number would slot Lamb in as the second-highest-paid receiver in the NFL on an average per year salary basis, just ahead of Eagles wideout A.J. Brown ($32 million APY) and just behind 2020 draft classmate and Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson ($35 million APY).
Despite Cowboys COO Stephen Jones saying at Dallas’ introductory training camp press conference that both Lamb and edge rusher Micah Parsons wanted to be the NFL’s highest-paid non-quarterback — translation: be paid more than Jefferson — that may no longer be true in the case of Lamb. Jefferson signed a four-year, $140 million deal with $110 million in guaranteed money while the second-highest paid non-quarterback — San Francisco 49ers edge rusher Nick Bosa — signed a five-year, $170 million deal with $122.5 million in guaranteed money.
Even though Lamb has missed all this time he could have been working with his teammates, coach Mike McCarthy isn’t worried about how his top pass catcher will look whenever his contract situation gets resolved.
“We miss CeeDee. We love CeeDee. He’ll be great once he gets here. He’s in the middle of a business situation,” McCarthy said Friday. … “It’s like whatever happens in fight club stays in fight club. Whatever happens in business is his business. Yeah, we have all the confidence in just the way he works that he’s going to come in here ready to go and when that time comes will pick up like he never left. … When I did see CeeDee and talked to him, I just said ‘hey, this is business, we’ll take care of the football when get here.’ I don’t want him to sweat that because he’s a workout fanatic. None of us are concerned about what he’s going to look like. He gets it. He’s in a business situation right now.”
Parsons recently expressed supreme confidence in Lamb suiting for Week 1, and Dallas 2023 Second Team All-Pro quarterback Dak Prescott revealed Lamb is ready to return to the team. Now, all Jerry and Stephen Jones have to do is close the deal.
“My birthday just passed, and I got a great happy birthday message from him. That led to some talks as well,” Prescott said. “He shared with me that he wants to get back, ready to get back. Hoping that this thing gets done for him, I know I am as well. Hopefully we can get him back sooner rather than later. I know he is grinding, I know he is itching and working. He is ready to be back with the boys.”
